The Craft of Research

by Booth, Wayne C.

• ISBN13: 9780226065687
• ISBN10: 0226065685
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-14
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Since 1995, students, researchers, and professionals have turned to The Craft of Research for clear and helpful guidance on how to conduct research and report it effectively. Now, master teachers Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams have completely revised and updated their classic handbook. The new edition will continue to help thousands of students and writers plan, carry out, and report on research to produce effective term papers, dissertations, articles, or books -- in any field, at any level.

Author Biography

Wayne C. Booth is the George Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His many books include The Rhetoric of Fiction and For the Love of It: Amateuring and its Rivals, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Gregory G. Colomb is a professor of the English language and literature at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic.

Joseph M. Williams is a professor emeritus in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Together Colomb and Williams have written The Craft of Argument.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
I RESEARCH, RESEARCHERS, AND READERS	1	(34)
Prologue: Starting a Research Project	3	(6)
Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research, Public and Private	9	(8)
What Is Research?	10	(2)
Why Write It Up?	12	(1)
Why a Formal Report?	13	(2)
Conclusion	15	(2)
Connecting with Your Reader: (Re)Creating Your Self and Your Audience	17	(18)
Creating Roles for Writers and Readers	17	(2)
Creating a Relationship with Your Reader: Your Role	19	(3)
Creating the Other Half of the Relationship: The Reader's Role	22	(4)
Writing in Groups	26	(4)
Managing the Unavoidable Problem of Inexperience	30	(5)
A Checklist for Understanding Your Readers	32	(3)
II ASKING QUESTIONS, FINDING ANSWERS	35	(74)
Prologue: Planning Your Project	37	(3)
From Topics to Questions	40	(16)
From an Interest to a Topic	41	(2)
From a Broad Topic to a Focused One	43	(2)
From a Focused Topic to Questions	45	(4)
From a Merely Interesting Question to Its Wider Significance	49	(7)
Finding Topics	53	(3)
From Questions to Problems	56	(19)
Problems, Problems, Problems	57	(3)
The Common Structure of Problems	60	(8)
Finding a Good Research Problem	68	(2)
Summary: The Problem of the Problem	70	(5)
Disagreeing with Your Sources	72	(3)
From Problems to Sources	75	(15)
Screening Sources for Reliability	76	(3)
Locating Printed and Recorded Sources	79	(4)
Finding Sources on the Internet	83	(2)
Gathering Data Directly from People	85	(3)
Bibliographic Trails	88	(1)
What You Find	88	(2)
Using Sources	90	(19)
Three Uses for Sources	91	(4)
Reading Generously but Critically	95	(1)
Preserving What You Find	96	(8)
Getting Help	104	(5)
Speedy Reading	106	(3)
III MAKING A CLAIM AND SUPPORTING IT	109	(74)
Prologue: Pulling Together Your Argument	111	(3)
Making Good Arguments: An Overview	114	(13)
Argument and Conversation	114	(2)
Basing Claims on Reasons	116	(1)
Basing Reasons on Evidence	117	(1)
Acknowledging and Responding to Alternatives	118	(1)
Warranting the Relevance of Reasons	119	(2)
Building Complex Arguments Out of Simple Ones	121	(1)
Arguments and Your Ethos	122	(5)
Designing Arguments Not for Yourself but for Your Readers: Two Common Pitfalls	124	(3)
Claims	127	(11)
What Kind of Claim?	127	(2)
Evaluating Your Claim	129	(9)
Qualifying Claims to Enhance Your Credibility	135	(3)
Reasons and Evidence	138	(13)
Using Reasons to Plan Your Argument	138	(2)
The Slippery Distinction between Reasons and Evidence	140	(2)
Evidence vs. Reports of Evidence	142	(2)
Selecting the Right Form for Reporting Evidence	144	(1)
Reliable Evidence	145	(6)
Showing the Relevance of Evidence	149	(2)
Acknowledgments and Responses	151	(14)
Questioning Your Argument	152	(2)
Finding Alternatives to Your Argument	154	(3)
Deciding What to Acknowledge	157	(2)
Responses as Subordinate Arguments	159	(6)
The Vocabulary of Acknowledgment and Response	161	(4)
Warrants	165	(18)
How Warrants Work	166	(2)
What Warrants Look Like	168	(1)
Knowing When to State a Warrant	168	(2)
Testing Your Warrants	170	(7)
Challenging the Warrants of Others	177	(6)
Some Strategies for Challenging Warrants	179	(4)
IV PREPARING TO DRAFT, DRAFTING, AND REVISING	183	(100)
Prologue: Planning Again	185	(4)
Outlining	187	(2)
Planning and Drafting	189	(19)
Preliminaries to Drafting	189	(2)
Planning: Four Traps to Avoid	191	(2)
A Plan for Drafting	193	(8)
The Pitfall to Avoid at All Costs: Plagiarism	201	(3)
The Next Step	204	(4)
Using Quotation and Paraphrase	205	(3)
Revising Your Organization and Argument	208	(14)
Thinking Like a Reader	209	(1)
Analyzing and Revising Your Overall Organization	209	(7)
Revising Your Argument	216	(2)
The Last Step	218	(4)
Titles and Abstracts	219	(3)
Introductions and Conclusions	222	(19)
The Three Elements of an Introduction	222	(3)
Establishing Common Ground	225	(3)
Stating Your Problem	228	(4)
Stating Your Response	232	(2)
Fast or Slow?	234	(1)
Organizing the Whole Introduction	235	(1)
Conclusions	236	(5)
Opening and Closing Words	238	(3)
Communicating Evidence Visually	241	(22)
Visual or Verbal?	244	(1)
Tables vs. Figures	244	(1)
Constructing Tables	245	(3)
Constructing Figures	248	(12)
Visual Communication and Ethics	260	(1)
Using Graphics as an Aid to Thinking	261	(2)
Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly	263	(20)
Judging Style	263	(2)
A First Principle: Stories and Grammar	265	(9)
A Second Principle: Old Before New	274	(1)
Choosing between Active and Passive	275	(2)
A Final Principle: Complexity Last	277	(3)
Spit and Polish	280	(3)
The Quickest Revision	281	(2)
V SOME LAST CONSIDERATIONS	283	(42)
The Ethics of Research	285	(4)
A Postscript for Teachers	289	(8)
An Appendix on Finding Sources	297	(20)
General Sources	298	(1)
Special Sources	299	(18)
A Note on Some of Our Sources	317	(8)
Index	325